Ensign Merrill — page 154: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CLOSE QUARTERS, y oo) 149 #5 dis of the how deeper after each wave; a quivering of the strong wooden framework; a groaning of tim- bers as if in protest—there were no other signs needed o show that her moments were numbered above the ocean’s level. ea The scene on her deck was indescribable. The crew was not long in learning of their new danger. Rush- - ing forward and aft, climbing the high bow and poop, trying to lower the few little boats, they went in frantic haste. All restraint, all discipline was at an end. Officers and men, each Moked to his own safety, and few found it. The end had come! A quick lurch forward, then another and another . deeper plunge, and the junk, still freighted with her vile crew, sank from sight, leaving bubbles and wreckage and strugghng forms of drowning men to mark her grave! When she had disappeared, Mark saw just beyond a small cockle-shell of a boat headed toward the disabled junk astern. In it he descried several figures lying in the bottom, which he shrewdly guessed were those of the white lieutenant and other officers. The ensign gave one brief but longing glance at the little craft. He would have given much to capture them, but there- was still work to be done in another quarter. Merrill was so highly pleased with the success of the former shot that’ he would have ordered Watson to try his skill on the other junk still hanging to the Badger’s quarter, but he saw at once that she was too far aft for the range of the broadside guns. Moreover, when he turned his attention to her he noticed a change on board. Instead of trying to draw closer to the cruiser with the aid of their erappling- irons, the entire crew was busily engaged in a frantic endeavor to free their ship from the steamer. They ‘Eomicbooks:com